


There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

by newtype



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family talk, Gen, Grieving, Homesickness, Implied Sheith, Keith named Time Wolf, rip Keith's dad, s6e2, time skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-23 23:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14943002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtype/pseuds/newtype
Summary: The first year of Krolia and Keith's expedition into the time rift leads to some uncomfortable questions.





	There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

**Author's Note:**

> This is a quick one-shot about the two year time-skip Keith and Krolia underwent in season six. I hope we get some answers in the future...in the meanwhile I'll be here in my corner filling in the gaps.

 

 “…And that’s how I became a paladin of Voltron.”

The fire crackled at him and his mother’s feet. Andromeda was fast asleep, resembling a cosmic swirl of dark blues and black. Krolia fought with him on the name, but in the end, he won and decided on Shiro’s favorite galaxy. The puppy was fast asleep, a rare occurrence ever since they found her after crash-landing in a meteorite.

 _She’s just like you,_ Keith told her. _A stranger in a strange land._

They made a home here for themselves. Insects buzzed in the night and not far, the vegetation rustled with life as the sun began fading away. Keith carefully kept note of the seasons, watching the foliage surrounding their makeshift shelter evolve at an alarming rate. The anomalies of the space-time rift still fascinated them. Soon they’d be able to compare their fieldwork to the record of other planets, determine how wide of an impact the Galra had on their colony’s ecosystems.

A humid rain trickled from the shelter roof.

“Keith,” his mother started, “You’ve done everything to make me proud.”

For once, Keith felt like he deserved the praise. He followed the shadows from the flames stretching across the earth, the figures bouncing and moving at the fire worn itself out.

“Mom.” The words still felt foreign – never did Keith think he’d desire that sort of familial affection, that language his comrades used so openly to refer to those they left back home. Krolia’s yellow eyes looked up, concerned, yet wary.

“I need to tell you something. About a year ago. When we first found the rift. I saw something. I saw Shiro.”

“Shiro? You mean the Black Paladin?”

“That’s right. He took care of me after dad…”

“I know about your father, Keith.” Krolia’s voice softened. “He was a very proud man. I’m sure he would’ve liked this Shiro.”

 Keith inhaled. The air felt heavy. Light began to creep back into the opening of their shelter, embers growing weaker and threatening darkness. Neither of them was bothered; living alone for so long accustomed them to the solitude, the pitch-black emptiness of an alien planet.

“You saw Shiro. And you saw me and your father.”

“That’s right,” Keith continued. “It was. Violent. I saw something in him I’d never seen before. It was like I was looking and not looking at Shiro at the same time.”

“You’re worried about the future, then,” Krolia added. “Is that it? What the rift showed you?”

Keith stared deeper into the fire. Somehow, he felt as if he watched the flames would eventually come to reveal the meaning of his vision. _Red Lion._ It’d been an entire year. What was only hours in their reality were years here – and yet – the ache in Keith’s chest told him the Lions might have felt otherwise. Nothing could have prepared him for the impossible loneliness he needed to avoid, to live through in order to pursue the mission. Wherever they were, this rift had the answer to quintessence they needed to defeat Lotor. To save this universe and all the others.

“We were fighting. But it wasn’t any regular fight – I felt my heart stop. I thought _god, is this really it? Is this how it’s going to end?_ And I was scared. I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t think any of it could’ve been real.”

A disturbance crossed Krolia’s face. Wordlessly, she reached out to her son, bringing him close to her side and wrapping her arm around his shoulder. Hesitant at first, Keith finally let his guard down and accepted the embrace. It wasn’t their first, but for Keith, each little act of vulnerability felt high-stakes. This was something for them to work on, Krolia told him. _First, we have to survive._

“I’ll make sure that never happens, Keith,” Krolia said. “I promise, we’ll stop whatever is hurting him. No matter how many times it takes.”

Keith appreciated the gesture, but still felt the sting of pessimism at his mother’s words. He wanted desperately to believe her. Yet, if the rift was accurate in its depictions of the past — then how could he argue with the future? They weren’t seeing illusions. This was the truth, Keith figured. And if he chose to believe it, he’d need to mentally prepare to see Shiro ready to maim, with nothing but pure fury in his eyes.

“Even if it means drastic measures, Keith, we’ll…”

“No,” Keith stated. “It won’t come to that. This is _Shiro_ we’re talking about. I’ll do everything I can to prevent drastic measures. I need him alive, Krolia. We need him back.”

Krolia opened her mouth to speak but didn’t find any words. The rain grew heavier, fat droplets beating down on the opening of the shelter. Andromeda tossed and turned in her sleep. Although neither of them was in any mood to rest, Krolia stood up and told Keith she’d be retiring for the night.

“There’s a lot on my mind, Keith,” she told him. “And I’m afraid that might be the same for you. Get some rest. I think it’ll do us both good.”

Keith shook his head. He settled on the ground and propped his chin on his head, admittedly out of exhaustion he wouldn’t concede to just yet.

 _The answer is here,_ he thought, _I know it._ This past year in the rift couldn’t be for nothing. Shiro was going to be safe.

 

* * *

 

The rift’s equivalent to fall made quick work of painting to local wildlife a deep rose-red. After the spring rainy season ended, Krolia proposed they change their base to better diversify their ecosystem research. Unable to find a good arguable, Keith followed her lead despite both of them knowing he didn’t deal well with change.

Krolia quickly entered the final statements in her log. Hopefully, upon their return to earth, they could find a trustworthy informant to share it with. In the meanwhile, Keith watched his mother over the year dedicate herself entirely to recording meticulous logs of the native flora and fauna. It was almost inspiring. He secretly wondered if perhaps she did the same after landing on Earth, and whether his dad found it as admirable as he did.

“Are you done, Keith?”

“Yeah. Andromeda!”

The pup, now an adolescent, hurried to his side. Over the course of a few months, she’d grown to an impressive size, her collar now thick with fur as the freezing weather approached. The climatic similarities to Earth were useful to that extent.

“Good girl,” Keith praised. He knelt and rubbed the back of her ears, appreciating the feeling of her soft coat that seemed to shimmer in just the right lighting.

“We can reach our next settlement site if we leave now,” Krolia said. She turned to Keith with a brisk, determined expression. “All this wildlife must be tapping into some sort of quintessence. There has to be a supply large enough to support a small ecosystem somewhere.”

All they departed, Keith glanced at their old shelter, allowing himself only for a moment to dwell on sentimental thoughts. Andromeda grew fast right before their eyes. Was she somehow related to the quintessence feeding back into the wildlife? Where there others like her? The fact that he had a million questions with no answers frightened him, but Keith never forgot what he had to prioritize.

_Knowledge or death._

He wondered if Krolia ever felt homesick.

“Mom,” Keith started. They’d been on the trail for roughly a few hours. Andromeda kept an energetic trot beside him, tail wagging with a determination to please. “Where did you — where did you live before joining the Blades?”

They continued walking, passing through another thicket before Krolia’s voice finally broke the unbearable silence.

“Zarkon invaded my home-planet, Keith. The Blades were my only choice. We are a very proud race. When this is all over, I’d like to show you…”

The thought gave Krolia pause. She’d given Keith one of her lives more than once, risked tossing herself across the galaxy after galaxy. She’d do it again in a heartbeat.

“Show me what?” Keith asked.

“There are some places Zarkon’s empire did not touch. When enough time has passed, I’ll take you. When things are safer.”

Andromeda whined and nudged Keith. Keith scratched the top of her head and followed in Krolia’s lead as they traveled further into the mountains. As they reached the top of the cliff, they dropped their backpacks and rested. A swathe of trees and rolling hills descended from the base of the mountain, swelling at the top and flattening near the bottom. If Keith squinted, he could spot the hidden spot where they’d build the camp, nestled between the bosom of a canopy and confidently placed rocks. Keith silently said his goodbyes.

A year passed without fanfare, without the brutal realities of wars, without Keith having to fear waking up with a Galran sword pressed against his throat. It was no surprise to either of them that they’d want this respite, even if it only meant just taking enough time to catch their breaths, to breathe, process the emotional tidal wave that welcomed them through the rift. It was another world. One Keith felt was keeping him in limbo. One that, even with dilation of time, insisted on pulling them further and further into its unexplored land.

 _If we die,_ Krolia warned him, _no one would know._   It’d be assumed the time rift destroyed them.

“But we’re alive right now,” Keith said. “And there’s the mission. People are depending on us. And there’s still so much I don’t know about my Galran heritage. I have so much to learn.”

“I know, Keith,” Krolia answered. Her mouth tightened into a fine line. After years of having to deal with the consequences of leaving her only child, Krolia had no right to deny Keith this. Knowing who he was. What he was. What they could do to make the universe a better place.

She beat herself up for abandoning him. Keith didn’t need words to tell her he loved her. Both of them were starved for affection, the expectations that they leave their emotions at the door and pursue greater things.

Keith felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder, the warmth of her touch against the breeze pulling through the valley. A swirl of deep scarlet and orange swam across the forest below, coming and going through the clouds until the sunlight slowly started to dissipate.

“Before you say goodbye to someone Keith,” Krolia said. “Tell them how much you love them. I have an entire lifetime to make up for that decision now.”

A chill ran down Keith’s spine. He wanted to say the same. Felt the burn in his throat. But no words came out.

It was officially three-hundred-sixty-five days since their arrival to the rift.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/watsnewbussycat)


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